The present disclosure relates to an organic EL display and electronic equipment.
Among flat panel displays, some use a so-called current-driven electro-optical element, whose emission brightness changes according to the current flowing through the device, as a light-emitting section (light-emitting element) of each of the pixels. Organic EL elements that are based on electroluminescence (EL) of an organic material and emit light when an electric field is applied to the organic thin film are known as current-driven electro-optical elements.
An organic EL display using an organic EL element as a light-emitting section of each of the pixels offers the following features. That is, the organic EL element can be driven by application of a voltage of 10V or less, making the organic EL display low in power consumption. The organic EL element is self-luminous, thus allowing for the organic EL display to provide higher image visibility than liquid crystal displays. Moreover, it is not necessary for the organic EL display to have any lighting members such as backlight, thus making the weight and thickness reduction easy. Further, the organic EL element has an extremely high response speed of the order of several microseconds, thus making the organic EL display free from afterimage during display of a moving image.
Incidentally, organic EL displays based on a so-called side-by-side patterning of RGB subpixels using a mask are generally known. In this process, R(red), G(green) and B(blue) organic EL materials are patterned by vapor deposition using a mask. In an organic EL display based on this scheme, RGB organic EL elements 21R, 21G and 21B and a color filter 80 are used in combination as illustrated in FIG. 22. Using the color filter 80 in combination provides higher color purity. In order to achieve a high definition organic EL display with the side-by-side patterning of RGB subpixels using a mask, however, the patterning of pixels of different colors is extremely difficult.
In contrast, some organic EL displays are not based on side-by-side patterning of RGB subpixels using a mask. Instead, these displays extract RGB light by using an organic EL element adapted to emit white light (hereinafter referred to as the “white organic EL element”) 21W and the color filter 80 in combination as illustrated in FIG. 23 (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-123971). This scheme using the white organic EL element 21W in combination with the color filter 80 is advantageous in increasing the size of the organic EL display and achieving higher definition.